Please comment on Cincinnati Enquirer's Editorial on Drug Addiction

Today in the Cincinnati Enquirer the editorial focus was on drug addiction. I ask you to weigh in with your own opinions. Below is several links I have bracketed the links with <> due to some email programs formatting, I also provide a tinyurl of the same link to avoid the email format issue. Please comment and let your voice be heard.

I listened to Charlotte Wethington and Dr. Jeremy Engel at the November 14th Northern Kentucky Heroin Impact meeting and they are on the right track. Treating drug addiction as a crime does not work! Going further, it will never work no matter what programs and Drug War task force we fund.

Our so called Drug War is really not a good description of our government’s policy; the more accurate label is Prohibition or rather Prohibition II. Just imagine if obesity were a crime! Would we then give birth to the “sugar n sweets” mafia?

It is time to recognize reality. For example state and Federal governments defines marijuana the same as heroin; a schedule one drug that it is deadly, addictive and with no medical use. Having a falsehood as the foundation is the origins of failure.

The Drug War is a failure! It is time to end this self-destructive war on our own people, starting with the repeal of marijuana prohibition. We need to start an open and honest dialogue on how to implement and effective drug policy that is not prohibition (aka the Drug War).

Personally I firmly believe that people need to be responsible for their actions and the resulting consequences. I do not support or condone drug abuse, but what we are doing today is not working and is actually counterproductive.

We're about:

Miami Valley NORML is the Cincinnati-Dayton local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. NORML does not promote the use of cannabis , we support the right of adults to use marijuana responsibly, whether for medical, personal or industrial use. Legalization would eliminate the crime, corruption and violence associated with the black market.